Adelita, a raspberry variety developed by Planasa and launched in 2012, maintains a leading position in the winter segment, thanks not only to its production in this specific window, but also to the yields it is offering. Last season closed with a record average of 15 tonnes of fruit per hectare, which has been marketed all over the world.
Despite the particularly adverse weather conditions last season in the main production areas, Adelita continues to be the best performing variety in winter. According to VitaSouss, one of the main raspberry growers in Morocco: "Adelita has yielded up to 15 tonnes per hectare in hydroponic, and 13-14 tonnes depending on the farm", confirms Hamid El Maloui, Project Manager Vitablue.
Adelita's planting plasticity and productive capacity continue to be of interest to growers in different geographical areas, especially Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Mexico, where it has a strong positioning due to its easy agronomic management and marketing.
Hamid explains why: "Adelita performs very well. It's pretty adapted to the area where we grow in Agadir, the South of Morocco and we still can achieve good yields. We are very satisfied because Planasa's team have helped us to improve the yields. The weekly visits to farm, the proximity of the team, especially Safwane Allem – Planasa's Sales Director in Morocco-have meant a lot to us."
For VitaBlue this is the third season with Adelita. In two years, they have tripled the area planted with raspberries, growing from 32 to 95 hectares, almost 90% is dedicated to Adelita and the other 10% to Pink Hudson: "We grow Planasa genetics in the 100% of our raspberry surface", confirms Hamid.
The main Adelita growers around the world are receiving plants from Planasa's nurseries these weeks to start a new season that will respond to the growing demand from the main global retailers.
New genetics to come: Pink Hudson
Planasa continues to work on obtaining and developing new varieties and this season can be considered as the launch year for Pink Hudson: a primocane variety with very good agronomic qualities that have aroused the interest of the main European retailers: "The new genetics are important, the raspberry market is looking for flavour, for Premium varieties. We believe this is the only way to improve in sales", states the VitaBlue's Project Manager.
Regarding the new Pink Hudson, VitaBlue explain that: "We need a variety with two cycles to complete Adelita. We want to start early and be producing from the beginning of October till mid of June. This means gaining almost two months, one at the beginning and the end and cover a bigger production cycle. And it also has good flavour. We say flavour is the fuel of sales".
For more information:
https://www.vitasouss.com/